Creamy Slow Cooked Pork Casserole – perfect comfort food!
This is my kind of Friday night dinner when it’s been raining and miserable all day and you just want something really tasty to warm you up from the inside.
I’d contentedly scoff every bit of this dish, but that sauce over mashed potatoes? Yes, I could eat that for the rest of my life and not get bored.
The meat is browned and then slow cooked with stock and cider until lovely and tender. I like to chuck a few veggies in – just to make it a little bit healthier, and then it’s served on creamy mashed potatoes, and finished off with crispy fried bacon lardons or pancetta.
Sometimes referred to as Somerset Pork casserole (this is generally made using a dry Somerset cider, and with the addition of apples in the sauce) or Normandy Pork (made using french cider or brandy, apples, crème fraîche and bacon lardons, sometimes dijon mustard too), I like to pick a few flavours from both. So for me it’s:
- Dry cider (alcoholic version)
- Cream rather than crème fraîche (sometimes crème fraîche can split, so I prefer to use cream – make sure it’s double/heavy cream though – the higher the fat content, the less likely it is to split.)
- Crispy bacon lardons – Often these are crisped up, then cooked in the casserole with the pork, but I prefer to sprinkle them on at the end so they retain all the crispy saltiness.
- I sometimes make it with apple slices. If you do, just add them for the last 15-20 minutes of cooking so they don’t go mushy.
This Creamy Slow Cooked Pork Casserole is a really good meal to make ahead and then reheat later. It’s also great when you’re cooking for lots of people – a large batch that everyone can spoon out onto their plates is ideal. Plus it’s easily made gluten free too.
The Creamy Slow Cooked Pork Casserole Recipe:
Creamy Slow Cooked Pork Casserole - perfect comfort food! A great make-ahead meal when you're cooking for a crowd, gluten free too!
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 500 g diced pork
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp celery salt optional – I find it adds a nice savoury flavour
- 1 onion peeled and chopped
- 12 baby mushrooms chopped in half
- 2 carrots peeled and chopped
- 250 ml dry cider (usually gluten free, but best to check)
- 420 ml chicken or vegetable stock (water plus 2 stock cubes is fine, or use 2 tsp bouillon for gluten free)
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- 150 g bacon lardons or chopped streaky bacon
- 1 tbsp cornflour cornstarch mixed with 3 tbsp cold water
- 60 ml double (heavy) cream
- 2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
- Mashed potatoes
- Steamed kale or other green veg
Preheat the oven to 170C/325F.
- Heat 1 1/2 tbsp of the vegetable oil in a large casserole dish until hot. Add the pork, salt, pepper and celery salt and brown on all sides - it should take around 6-8 minutes.
- Turn the heat down to medium and add in the onion. Cooked for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onion softens.
- Add the mushrooms and cook for a further two minutes, then add the carrots, cider, stock and dried thyme. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Stir and scrape up any bits than may have stuck to the bottom of the pan. Place a lid on the pan, and place in the oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours*, until the pork flakes apart when you press it with a fork. Check a couple of times during the last hour of cooking and add a splash of water or stock if it's starting to look a little dry.
- Just before the casserole comes out of the oven, heat the remaining 1/2 tbsp oil in a frying pan and cook the bacon lardons until crispy. Turn off the heat.
- Remove the casserole from the oven and stir in the cornstarch and water mixture to thicken, then stir in the cream. Taste and season with a little more salt and pepper if needed. Sprinkle on the bacon lardons.
- Serve with green veg on top of mashed potatoes. Sprinkle on a little chopped parsley before serving.
* You could also transfer to a slow cooker at this point and cook for 6-8 hours on low or 5-6 hours on medium.
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Nutrition info is for one serving of this recipe and does not include serving suggestions of mashed potatoes and green veg.
Equipment:
In order to make this Creamy Slow Cooked Pork Casserole recipe you will need:
- A good Kitchen knife. I have recently bought this Dalstrong one and love it.
- Chopping Board
- Casserole pan
- Measuring Spoons
- A frying pan/skillet
- Wooden or Silicon Coated Spoons. We have just bought these and love them.
- Potato Ricer HINT: Using a potato ricer makes the smoothest mash potato you will every taste. I recommend getting one!
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Sandra says
Hello,
Can I substitute cider with anything else? I work In outback and we have only beers and cooking wines in here :/ or can I leave the cider out?
Chris Corbishley says
HI Sandra,
This is a difficult one as i haven’t tried this dish without the cider. You could try substituting the 250ml cider for 125ml of white wine and also increasing the stock by an additional 125ml.
If you do give it a try, please let me know how you get on.
Many Thanks
Chris & Nicky
Jo says
Hi, thanks for this recipe. Just wondering which cut of pork you would recommend using?
Janice Kington says
We have just had this for our tea tonight. Wow it was really tasty.. I have half of it ready to Freeze but did not put the cream in that. I really recommend this dish.
Kathryn Clayton says
Love this pork dish, such a wonderful family comforting winter dish. Great crowd pleaser.
Sheila says
Made this recently but omitted the cream as I was freezing for quick midweek meals which unfortunately also meant it wasn’t as thick a sauce as I presume it should have been.
Not sure if it would be ok to freeze with the cream, does anyone know?.
Nicky Corbishley says
Hi Shelia, I’ve tried freezing with cream in an it worked fine after heating through. However the results can be different if you heat over to high a heat or if you’re not using heavy cream.
I’d suggest omitting the cream for freezing to be on the safe side, then adding it later, when reheating the meal.
If the sauce is a little runny, sometimes I mix 1 tsp of cornstarch with 3 tsp of cold water and stir it through to thicken the sauce up.
Hope that helps!
Sheila says
Many thanks, will either add cream or cornstarch when reheating as suggested, thanks.
Susanna Timney says
I made this and it was delicious! My husband said it was the best porn dish he has ever had!
swmillardackred says
Good lord, I’ve been cooking this for the last five hours and now I find out it’s a ‘porn dish’. I’ve had to throw the whole thing out before father saw.
Nicky Corbishley says
Hi Simon, sorry, I’m not sure what you mean. I’ve cooked this dish many times, and it always turns out great. Did you change anything in the ingredients or cooking process? Perhaps we can figure out where it went wrong for you.